GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT 15 the bullet had already been in fragments when it struck the victim. The fact that it had fragmented could be explained by a manufacturing defect or by its having been manipulated to make it more likely to break up. In the expert's view, however, these two scenarios occurred only rarely and were therefore less likely than the one advanced by the prosecuting authorities' experts (namely that the bullet had collided with an intermediate object). 65. The other experts appointed by the applicants to reconstruct the events concluded that the stone had shattered on impact with the jeep rather than with the bullet fired by M.P.. In order to reconstruct the events on the basis of the audiovisual material, and especially of the photographs, it was necessary to establish the exact position of the photographer, and in particular his or her angle of vision, taking into account also the type of equipment used. In addition, it was necessary to establish the timing of the images and how they fitted in with the sound. The applicants' experts criticised the method used by the prosecuting authorities' experts, who had based their analysis on “video and computer simulations” and had not analysed the available images rigorously and in detail. The method used to perform the test shots was also criticised. 66. The applicants' experts concluded that Carlo Giuliani had been about three metres away from the jeep when the shot was fired. While it was undeniable that the fatal bullet had been in fragments when it struck the victim, the possibility of its having collided with the stone which could be seen in the video should be ruled out. A stone would have distorted the bullet differently and left different marks on Carlo Giuliani's body. Moreover, M.P. had not fired upwards. D. The request to discontinue the proceedings and the applicants' objection 1. The request to discontinue the proceedings 67. On completion of the domestic investigation the Genoa public prosecutor decided to request that the case against M.P. and F.C. be discontinued. The public prosecutor noted first of all that far-reaching changes had been made to the organisation of the public-order operations on the night of 19 July 2001, and took the view that this partly explained the problems that had arisen on 20 July. However, he did not detail the changes or the problems that had resulted. 68. The public prosecutor went on to observe that Mr Lauro's version of events and that of Captain Cappello differed on one specific point: whereas the former asserted that the decision to position law-enforcement personnel on Via Caffa in order to block the demonstrators had been taken by mutual agreement, the latter maintained that it had been a unilateral decision taken